The present disclosure relates generally to design methodologies involving integrated circuits (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), microprocessors, system-on-chips (SOCs), etc.). More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for extracting electrical specifications from prelayout simulations.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Integrated circuits (ICs) take a variety of forms. For instance, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are integrated circuits that are intended as relatively general-purpose devices. FPGAs may include logic that may be programmed (e.g., configured) after manufacturing to provide any desired functionality that the FPGA is designed to support. Thus, FPGAs contain programmable logic, or logic blocks, that may be configured to perform a variety of functions on the FPGAs, according to a designer's design. Additionally, FPGAs may include input/output (I/O) logic, as well as high-speed communication circuitry. For instance, the high-speed communication circuitry may support various communication protocols and may include high-speed transceiver channels through which the FPGA may transmit serial data to and/or receive serial data from circuitry that is external to the FPGA.
Over the course of developing ICs (e.g., FPGAs, CPUs, SOCs, etc.), the designer may engage in one or more cycles of design iterations. For instance, the designer may consider various parameters and dimensions when determining a physical configuration of the components (e.g., logic blocks, circuitry, process nodes, etc.). In certain situations, unexpected reliability concerns (e.g., electromigration, electrical parasitics, self-heating, etc.) arising during the design process may result in unforecasted cycles of design iterations. One way to address these design challenges is to provide electrical specification information to the designer earlier within the design process. However, it may be difficult and time-consuming to gather and provide electrical specification information to the designer earlier within the design process.